Preface

PANIYAS AND NAWA
 
For many years the Paniyas have lived as bonded servants to smaller landowners in the region of southwestern India. As the anthropologist, Edgar Thurston, stated in 1909: "Their position is said to be very little removed from that of a slave, for every Paniyan is some landlord's 'man', and though he is, of course, free to leave his master, he is at once traced, and good care is taken that he does not get employment elsewhere."
 

Dr. S. Narasimhan (died 1978) was a Tamil Indian medical doctor, a Brahmin Hindu, born and raised in Ootacamund (Ooty), who had devoted his practice to the welfare of the tribal people of the Nilgiri Hills, beginning in 1942. His paying practice helped him to provide such services free of charge to the poorest of the poor. Eventually, in 1958, at the insistence of close personal friends, like the retired Parsee civil servant from Bombay, Mr. Phiroze Ghandy, an association was established, the Nilgiris Adivasi Welfare Association (NAWA), which enabled the raising of funds to carry on and expand this work. "Adivasi" is a general term for tribal peoples of India; it may literally mean "those who lived here before" or "original inhabitants". I think it is out of a combination of both respect and affection that Dr. Narasimhan was generally known within NAWA and beyond, simply as "Doctor". And it is as "Doctor" that he was introduced to me when we first met in September 1966.
 
Two "western" ladies joined NAWA in the months before I arrived there. Miss Victoria Armstrong (died in India, 1997), an inspectress of schools in Leeds, England, took early retirement to devote her fulltime and considerable energy to NAWA, becoming, as its "Honorary Secretary", its fundraiser par excellence, globally. Miss Martin (died in India, 1972), a bookseller from Australia, selling Australian text books to schools in India, volunteered as Treasurer of NAWA. Frequently these two ladies would accompany the Doctor on his nighttime visits to the various jungle hospitals operated by NAWA. NAWAand Dr. Narasimhan's headquarters were at Kotagiri, about 30 miles north of Ootacamund (Ooty), the headquarters town of the Nilgiris District.
 
A recent description of NAWA is as follows: "NAWA is a tribal welfare organisation working for the welfare and development of the scattered aboriginal tribes of Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu and adjoining areas covering a tribal population of 30,000; [it] runs hospitals, dispensaries, crèches; [it] conducts education and economic development programmes and rehabilitation programmes for bonded labourers."
 
 
PANIYA COLONY
 
Dr. Narasimhan heard of patients requiring his help on his trips into the Paniya region. These shy people, however, were reticent to approach him, a non-Paniyan, for help. As his jeep approached, the Paniyas would run away. However, a courageous young woman, Chunda, persuaded her fellow-Paniyas to trust the doctor.  And thus began an association with Dr. Narasimhan and NAWA. The landless plight of the Paniyas motivated Dr. Narasimhan to seek help.  Just a few months before I joined the Paniya Colony, negotiations with the Madras State Government and NAWA had been completed with a grant of 100 acres of land for this Colony. This was just a few miles from the border to Kerala, on the western slopes of the Nilgiri Hills, a bit over 120 miles from NAWA headquarters in Kotagiri. In 1898, on these western slopes of the Nilgiri Hills (as told to me by Dr. Narasimhan), Ronald Ross, accompanied by his grandfather, identified the Anopheles mosquito as being responsible for transmitting the malaria parasite to humans.  A subsidy/loan was provided to NAWA and five long houses with five family units each, consisting of two rooms, were built by the Welfare Department. A grant towards building a community kitchen was also provided. A well for drinking water and washing was also constructed for the Colony. And then the 25 families, 120 people, of the Paniya tribe were moved into these houses. Some of the Paniyas had been living on that land already, the Karikkamunda group. Thus we called this Colony the Paniya Colony Karikkamunda. The oldest male member of this group, Vella, henceforth considered himself the "chief" among this group of Paniyas.  Chunda was Vella's younger sister.
 
Dr. Narasimhan knew the Colony could not be managed by long distance, 120 miles from his headquarters at Kotagiri, 90 miles from the Nilgiris District Headquarters, Ooty. CUSO had contacted him and he knew what he wanted – a Farm Manager. In October 1966 I became that Farm Manager. And my experience among the Paniyas for the following 10 months is the essence of the following book.
 
The long-term goal has been to turn the land over to the Paniyas themselves. The aim of NAWA( including me) for the Paniya Colony was to diversify the agriculture, thus to minimize loss should a certain crop fail in any given season. We started in 1966 with the planting of tapioca. The starchy root of this plant, also known as cassava or manioc, is a staple diet of the Paniyas. We also grew lemon grass, the oil of which we extracted in a little still on the Colony and sold into the market. We planted mulberries for eventual silkworm rearing and also mangoes and limes and some vegetables, as well as ginger.
 
I had just completed two Masters degrees at the University of California (Davis) (UCD). One MS was in agronomy/plant breeding and the other was in international agricultural development. With my interest in international agricultural development having evolved over some years, I wanted to obtain some practical first-hand experience in the "developing world" prior to continuing for a PhD. Thus I approached CUSO in Ottawa. I was asked to the UC-Berkeley campus to meet for an interview. This took place over coffee, outside on the university lawns, with a Canadian lady professor, who had been involved in the formative years of CUSO (which started in 1961). I was accepted and in July began two months of intensive general orientation at UBC in Vancouver, BC, Canada, for deployment to a "developing country", specifically India. The morning-to-night curriculum included culture, customs, and the languages of southern India. During this time, CUSO had arranged for me to take up the position of "Farm Manager" with the Paniya Colony being operated by NAWA. However, as soon as I got off the plane in New Delhi, Dr. David Hopper of the Rockefeller Foundation and CUSOIndia agricultural advisor, took me aside and indicated that with my Masters in agriculture, he had a more appropriate placement for me in mind. This was with a seed producer in Maharashtra State, who was also involved in plant breeding and agronomic research on various crops. While I appreciated Dr. Hopper's concern, I felt I needed to go to the Nilgiris and see what NAWA had in place for looking after the Paniya Colony. After all, CUSO had made the commitment that I would come there, to NAWA. Nevertheless, Dr. Hopper arranged for me to meet Dr. Lee House, a colleague of his, in Bombay, and we travelled together to Phaltan, in Satara District of Maharashtra State, where I met Mr. B. Nimbkar and his team. Mr. Nimbkar assumed I would stay right there with him. However, I was on my way to the Nilgiri Hills, and as you can read in this book, I stayed there until the following July.
 
What follows is in the form of a diary. I based this entirely on two sets of letters. One group I wrote to my then-fiancée, now wife, Bev in California, USA, where she was continuing her studies at Davis. The other group of letters, all written in German, was to my parents, in Oliver, BC, Canada. The words and thoughts are mine at age twenty-four, and the times were the 1960s.
 
Hans-Henning Mündel, 18 June 2007